Hi, as most of you may already know, there is a new $200 PC that a few weeks ago sold out on Wallmart called gPC (gPC Specs: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614, Reviews: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allReviews.do?product_id=7754614), that comes with g0S (http://www.thinkgos.com, an Ubuntu based linux distro) installed, and the first thing that came to my mind was that maybe (and forgive me for being so optimist, that's exactly why I'm writing this post, because I'd like to know your opinion about it), and just maybe there could be a way to build a $300 or $400 HTPC with only essential cheap but quality-acceptable hardware (excluding the front-end of course) that could be attractive to masses (as gPC is trying), and increase LinuxMCE popularity vs. Windows MCE.

Searching on this forum I found this thread: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3204.0 (I was about to reply to this thread with this post you're reading but I didn't think the name of the original post "Possible thin client?" would get to the point I'm trying to make) that talks about the $60 all-in-one motherboard (http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001) that is used to build the gPC as an option to build a LMCE PC. Maybe with a Hauppauge PVR-150 tuner or even a cheaper Linux-compatible one cost wouldn't go so high.

The thing is that I would like to know if someone has already tested this gPC or at least it's motherboard with LinuxMCE indeed or if somebody knows or has a better idea for a low-cost HTPC and would like to post it here. The problem is that reading some reviews on clubit's motherboard page I found something I already expected but I don't take it for granted before I get to know some LinuxMCE specific stories about this hardware or test it on my own:

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Buy this for its economy and low power consumption. This is a 5 rating for my needs. wouldn't rate higher than a three for multimedia or games. There are better options (I wonder how much those options would get to cost).

Some other reviewer wrote this:

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Strengths: Low power. Using PicoPSU and Maxtor 160GB EIDE, LiteOn DVD writer the system runs 24-40Watts. The DVD kicks it up to 40. Idles at 24.Weaknesses:Display sucks and no upgrade slot for AGP or PCIe.Summary: Using a Dell 1905FP LCD display there are blurry areas splattered around the screen. Other MBs with better built in GPUs do not have this problem. The GeForce 6100M and AMD 690G work excellent. Using the same hardware on a GeForce 6100M the power usage is 30-55 Watts with a BE2300 CPU.

« Last Edit: December 10, 2007, 05:06:34 pm by jvizueta »

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"Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.)"- Linus Torvalds

I've got one showing up on the 30th according to fedex's site. I'm just going to use it as a nonvideo playing oribiter/md that will run a touchscreen access panel and do bluetooth detection near my door entry to my house. I'll put it through it's paces though and see what i can get the graphics to do and what kind of video it can handle. I've already know how to get unichrome graphics working so it shouldn't take me long once I have it in hand. For $60 it's about impossible to beat for a low power system.

"Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.)"- Linus Torvalds

"Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.)"- Linus Torvalds

I just got my picopsu the other day. I'm pretty much not messing with it until 710 comes out. I'm certain it won't run UI3 but I'll see how it does on 720p and 1080i content and the UI2.For a temporary test I may just install ubuntu 710 and see how it works with myth as a client. I'm off work for the next two days so I'll mess with it later on this morning and let you know

so I've been messing with it for about an hour and I can't get it to post.. power kicks in, fan comes on and nothing. It may be very picky and not like my ram no idea.. checking to see if there is a support site. So far I've tried 2 different psu's and 4 brands of ram

"Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy. (Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.)"- Linus Torvalds